Musical Cat-astrophe

Contemporary Classical music certainly has had its controversial moments. In 1952 John Cage wrote 4’33” – a work for solo piano in three movements where not a single note is played! The piece is about the environmental sounds that the listener hears when the pianist sits at the piano and offers only “silence” for four minutes and thirty-three seconds.

Another famous controversy is the riot that broke out at the 1913 Paris premiere of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. Wikipedia describes that event: “The complex music and violent dance steps depicting fertility rites first drew catcalls and whistles from the crowd. At the start with the opening bassoon solo, the audience began to boo loudly due to the slight discord in the background notes behind the bassoon’s opening melody. There were loud arguments in the audience between supporters and opponents of the work. These were soon followed by shouts and fistfights in the aisles. The unrest in the audience eventually degenerated into a riot. The Paris police arrived by intermission, but they restored only limited order. Chaos reigned for the remainder of the performance, and Stravinsky himself was so upset on account of its reception that he fled the theater in mid-scene, reportedly crying.”

And now we have a new work premiered in Lithuania on June 5, 2009 called CATcerto. Yes, you guessed it – it’s a 4-minute concerto where a cat named Nora is the soloist! Watch the video and you decide if this portends the end of civilization as we have known it!